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Thecla, a Woman to Tame the Wild Teutons

Dan Graves, MSL

The savage Teutonic people of Northern Europe were brought to Christ
by missionaries in the eighth century. The most famous of these
gospel-bearers was Boniface. Among his helpers were women.

Christianity succeeds best where it reaches both sexes in a
double-pronged attack. The importance of mature Christian women as
examples for new converts and as educators of children was not lost on
Boniface. He asked Tetta, the abbess of Wimborne, Dorset, to send him
assistants. Tetta sent Lioba and Thecla to his aid.

Boniface appointed these women as heads of monastic institutions
observing the Benedictine rule. Their work endured even after he had
been butchered by pagans. Many a man has been able to work on his feet
because others supported him on their knees. Boniface relied on his
"daughters" as more than heads of abbeys. He called on them to
be his prayer partners.

In a famous letter to the "...revered and dearly loved sisters
Leobgith and Thecla, and to Cynehild," he wrote: "I urge and direct you,
beloved daughters, to pray to our Lord frequently, as we trust you do
constantly, and will continue to do, as you have in the past ... and
know that we praise God, and our heart's yearning grows that God our
Lord, refuge of the poor and hope of the lowly, will free us from our
straits and the trials of this evil age, that His word may spread, and
the wonderful Gospel of Christ be held in honor, that His grace be not
fruitless in me... And... pray that I may not die without some fruit for
that Gospel."

It seems that Thecla's character was so noble that when she oversaw
Kitzingen, she was simply called Heilga, which means "The
Saint." This day, October 15, is her
feast day in various church calendars.

A grisly story is associated with the remains of St. Thecla. During
the Peasant Wars in Germany, rebels desecrated the graves of St. Thecla
and St. Adelheid. One of the ruffians used their heads to play a game of
skittles. Their bodies were covered with rubbish when a new church was
built. Despite this outrage, the echoes of the good they did cannot be
muted and we are sure that they will rise again at the resurrection.